MLB INTERACTIVE NEWS & NOTES: ESPN GETS BAT ON TRACK

For its MLB coverage, ESPN will continue to use "Bat
Track," a two-dimensional animation that shows how a
hitter's swing path and bat speed are related to pitch
selection and speed. This season, "Bat Track" will be used
on all ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" telecasts, the Home Run
Derby and select Division Series games (ESPN).
FOR ALL YOU BASEBALL JUNKIES: In Montreal, Mitch Garber
reviewed all 30 MLB team Web sites. He rated the Dodgers'
site the best, giving honorable mentions to the Giants,
Angels and Blue Jays. The Cubs' site is also a "must-visit"
(Montreal GAZETTE, 4/5)....In Denver, Leyla Kokmen examined
baseball on the Web, noting the "growing breed" of fans who
make use of Web sites devoted to MLB "to quench their
craving for news, scores, stats and standings." Jupiter
Communications analyst Patrick Keane: "It's such a data-
driven sport. ... The Web easily affords you to be able to
bring it all together at once" (DENVER POST, 4/6)....Barnes
& Noble has become a sponsor on Fastball.com, and is
creating a virtual library on the site that will feature
baseball-related books available from B&N (Fastball.com).
...Total Sports has re-designed its TotalBaseball.com site.
It now features a searchable database of all 14,791 major
leaguers, wire service coverage, situational stats for every
current MLB player back to '82 and real-time cybercasts,
which include updated out-of-town scores (Total Sports).